Karnasubarner Guptodhon: Abir Chatterjee's own temple of d(h)oom

Karnasubarner Guptodhon, the third film in the Bengali ‘Guptodhon’ franchise, comes to fans of actor Abir Chatterjee and the Franchise(in that order) as a Durga Puja gift.

There was a time when the festive season flung forward a tempting array of films in Kolkata’s movie theatres. Now it happens rarely. It’s happened now. Karnasubarner Guptodhon is the versatile Abir Chatterjee third film in the treasure-hunt franchise after Guptodhoner Sandhane and Durgeshgorer Guptodhan.

It’s a got a festive feel-bhalo flair and flavour to it which the Bengali audience likes at this time of the year. Although there are supposedly sinister forces working in the plot, no harm is done to anyone. No one dies, certainly not the producers of this breezy blithe Bangla Indiana Jones in the temple of dhoom.

Dhoom (celebration) and not doom is the keyword in the soft-pedaling progression of Karnasubarner Guptodhon. Straightaway the plot which is located in a fictional scenic town called Rohitashwogarh re-introduces us to Subarna Sen a.k.a Sonada and his two assistants Abir and Jhinuk, played with a mix of bantering and flirting by Arjun Chakrabarty and Isha Saha. These are the upcoming stars in Bangla cinema. They exude a certain freshness coupled with an old-world charm that comes quite naturally to Bengali actors.

There is some amusing teasing about Abir and Jhinuk and their ‘practice’ for marriage which everyone insists must happen, the marriage not the ‘practice’(meaning pre-marital sex). But one gets the feeling that this sleuth’s assistant -couple will continue to remain unmarried in the films in the Franchise to come.

Where do we place Karnasubarner Guptodhon in the franchise? It is craftily assembled but finally an unremarkable treasure-hunt story, obviously stymied by the limited budget of Bangla cinema. Although I doubt whether a larger canvas would serve any purpose here. The key to the success of the ‘Guptodhon’ franchise is its artless exuberance.

The villains played in broad strokes of comicbook badness by Sourav Das and Rajatava Dutta are, in their heart of hearts, just greedy not evil. That’s what makes this franchise festive family fun. Das specially is a hoot as the avaricious gun-toting self-declared mafioso. Dutta could have toned down his villainy. He takes his character beyond theatrics to the hemisphere of hamming where the cast doesn’t really have a place.

Watch out for Kinjal Nanda as a morally conflicted treasure hunter who just wants to pay off his debts.

Among the actors, there is a required blend of the theatrical and subtle. You can’t treat a treasure-hunt like a serial-killer thriller. The actors seem to be aware of the easygoing mood required and pitch in accordingly. But at several plot points I wished director Drubo Bannerjee would perk up the narrative a bit. This over-polite treasure hunt needs a shake by the shoulder.

Clearly this is Abir Chatterjee’s show and he is a fine blend of sleuth and a Bhadra Lok who would rather be lounging in his Kolkata home with a book. But what to do? There is another treasure hunt beckoning Citizen Sonada.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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